Safety-critical Organizations Research Articles

Managing security evidence in safety-critical organizations

With the increasing prevalence of open and connected products, cybersecurity has become a serious issue in safety-critical domains such as the automotive industry. As a result, regulatory bodies have become more stringent in their requirements for cybersecurity, necessitating security assurance for products developed in these domains. In response, companies have implemented new or modified processes to incorporate security into their product development lifecycle, resulting in a large amount of evidence being created to support claims about the achievement of a certain level of security. However, managing evidence is not a trivial task, particularly for complex products and systems. This paper presents a qualitative interview study conducted in six companies on the maturity of managing security evidence in safety-critical organizations. We find that the current maturity of managing security evidence is insufficient for the increasing requirements set by certification authorities and standardization bodies. Organizations currently fail to identify relevant artifacts as security evidence and manage this evidence on an organizational level. One part of the reason are educational gaps, the other a lack of processes. The impact of AI on the management of security evidence is still an open question.

Why Scrum works in new product development: the role of social capital in managing complexity

Major changes are currently underway across new product development (NPD) practice, and a number of new NPD management methods and processes are emerging. Managers are faced with an array of possible process models and methods to choose from, including the formal Stage-Gate method as well as multiple emerging variants of Agile. The claimed benefits of Agile methods make it attractive, but its suitability is uncertain. In safety-critical organizations and environments a well-controlled, waterfall-based project model would likely be expected. In an empirical study of an R&D department in a large organization creating and adapting complex air traffic management systems we investigate the use and effects of Scrum, the leading Agile method. Since project coordination is a social phenomenon, we apply social capital and project complexity as theoretical lenses for evaluating the effects of Scrum. We find that Scrum and social capital provide reciprocal benefits, and that the stakeholders found Scrum to be an effective and valuable way of working, mitigating the effects of complexity.

Authentic leadership, person-organization fit and collectivistic orientation: a moderated-mediated model of workplace safety

PurposeWorkplace safety has been a persistent issue for safety-critical organizations. Based on self-verification theory, this study investigates how authentic leadership affects safety behaviors in a collectivistic context.Design/methodology/approachThis research collected 259 matching questionnaires for high-speed railway (HSR) drivers and their supervisors in China. Specifically, HSR drivers were invited to fill in their general perceived authentic leadership, person-organization fit and collectivistic orientation. In addition, their direct supervisors were invited to assess their safety behaviors.FindingsAuthentic leadership exhibits a significant positive impact on safety compliance and safety participation, implying that authentic leadership positively impacts safety behavior. The person-organization fit partially mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and safety behavior (safety compliance and participation). Furthermore, collectivistic orientation moderates the relationship between authentic leadership and person-organization fit.Originality/valueThe findings of this study provide important insights into authentic leadership and person-organization fit for developing effective strategies to improve workplace safety.

Does formal mentoring impact safety performance? A study on Chinese high-speed rail operators

The importance of mentoring as a developmental resource in organizational settings is well documented. However, the mechanism underlying the association between formal mentoring and safety performance is not well defined. Based on the self-expansion theory, this study examines the relationship between formal mentoring and individual safety performance in the high-speed railway operation. We postulate that formal mentoring enhances individual safety performance through the sequential mediation of self-expansion and self-efficacy. We also argue that the relationship between formal mentoring and individuals’ self-expansion is weaker when individuals possess high power distance orientation. Using paired data from 421 protégés and 102 mentors operating high-speed railways of China, we tested the proposed model. This study contributes to the understanding of formal mentoring by; i. establishing that formal mentoring positively relates to protégés’ safety performance, ii. empirically validating the sequential mechanisms by which formal mentoring promotes positive outcomes for the organization and the employees, and iii. revealing the moderating effect of power distance orientation on the relationship between formal mentoring and self-expansion. The findings of this research provide practical implications for managers to understand the positive effects of formal mentoring and make rational use of it in safety-critical organizations.

Investigating the role of leadership in safety outcomes within oil and gas organisations

For many countries, the oil and gas industry is regarded as one of the most lucrative and key sources of energy. Tasks in this sector can be classified under five main stages – exploration, oil extraction, refining, transporting and marketing of oil and its byproducts. Such tasks pose substantial risks to the environment, personnel and community at large. When accidents occur in the industry, the likelihood of human fatality is very high. Organisations where safety is highly critical (i.e. high exposure to risk and likelihood of an accident) poses particular challenges for leaders. Thus, such organisations call for specific leadership/leadership behaviours, which may differ from those most effective in less safety-critical organisations. Therefore, this paper examines some key accidents in the oil and gas industry that had huge influence on the development of safety legislation. The paper is centred on the literature review and the selected accidents; based on the following themes – leadership, safety culture, safety outcomes, and safety climate. Discussion on the study carried out was presented, followed by a framework for safety leadership. Finally, this paper concludes that safety-critical organisations require leadership that influences followers to behave safely, acts as a role model and exhibits profound concern for safety.

Lean on Me: A Scoping Review of the Essence of Workplace Support Among Child Welfare Workers.

Child welfare workers (CWWs) often work under conditions similar in nature to workers within safety critical organizations (SCOs). This is because most of their work surrounds child neglect, securing homes for foster children, haphazard, and intricate cases, among other things, and where making wrong decisions, inattention to details, and the likes could lead to adverse consequences especially for the kids within their care. Research has shown that employees who experience support at work often report less stress symptoms, burnout, and a host of other negative workplace experiences. Experience of support at work has also been found to boost employees’ retention, job satisfaction, and productivity. Despite this development, research exploring the essence of workplace support among CWW is very scarce in the literature, and we know very little about the type of workplace support and their influence on a host of workplace outcomes, especially the negative ones like secondary traumatic stress, aggression, and violence toward CWWs. The purpose of the current scoping review was to uncover what is known about workplace support and their relationship with workplace outcomes among CWWs. The authors explored four databases and identified 55 primary studies investigating workplace support and workplace outcomes among CWWs in the review. Studies mostly framed support under three main support types of coworker/peer support, social/organizational/management support, and supervisor/leadership support. Findings showed that workplace support has a positive impact on workplace variables like job satisfaction, engagement, commitment, and reduces the risk of turnover, burnout, and other negative workplace variables. The review highlights possible directions for future research.

Organization is also a “life form”: Organizational-level personality, job satisfaction, and safety performance of high-speed rail operators

Although studies have suggested that personality can forecast safety performance at the individual level, the link between organizational-level personality and safety performance is rarely considered. On the basis of the Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) theory, the present study investigated the direct and indirect effects of the organizational emergence of personality (Five-Factor Model) on individual-level outcomes (safety performance) in the high-speed rail industry. The sample consisted of 1035 high-speed rail operators in China. The results indicated that the effects of organizational-level personality on safety performance are similar to or stronger than the effects of individual-level personality. Specifically, organizational-level extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness have significantly positive relationships with individual-level safety compliance and safety participation, while neuroticism has a significantly negative relationship with safety compliance and safety participation; the effect of openness to experience was not significant. Moreover, in terms of indirect effects, job satisfaction mediated the links of the four personality constructs (extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, and conscientiousness) with safety compliance and safety participation. These findings highlight the importance of organizational personality to improving employees’ safety performance in safety-critical organizations.

A STAMP-based approach for designing maritime safety management systems

Designing maritime safety management systems commonly follows basic processes which focus on fulfilling the demands of the regulations in the industry. This provokes designing systems with limited application which are not capable to efficiently use the guidance contained in regulatory demands, and more importantly, creating systems which are not capable of representing, evaluating, and improving the dynamic management of safety-critical organizations. This article proposes a safety system engineering process for designing maritime safety management systems which is based on the Systems-Theoretic Accident Modelling and Processes (STAMP). This process is applied for sketching the safety management of the Vessel Traffic Services in Finland. The aim is to systematically represent the function of the utilized controls for ensuring the internal VTS safety management and the safety of navigation in Finnish sea areas. The outcome of this study provides a descriptive process of analysis for designing maritime safety management systems. In this process, two other concrete elements are included for supporting the functioning of the safety management system to be designed. First, the adaptation of an identification process for determining key performance indicators for planning, monitoring and evaluating the functioning of the safety management system. Second, the constitution of a performance monitoring tool capable of executing the monitoring, measuring, and updating of the determined key performance indicators and the general functioning of the designed safety management system.

Thinking of better or worse? How goal orientation affects safety behavior in near misses

Near misses in which safety plays a critical role are significant to organizations. However, how people in safety-critical organizations can learn from near misses and in the future avoid the associated negative consequences still remains unresolved. Drawing on goal orientation theory, we explored how individuals' goal orientation influences their response in a near-miss situation, mediated by counterfactual thinking. We conducted a field study with 141 construction workers and car-accessory-manufacturing workers in China. The results indicated that upward counterfactual thinking mediated the positive relationship between learning goal orientation and safety participation, whereas downward counterfactual thinking mediated the negative relationship between performance goal orientation and safety participation. The findings together highlight the significance of goal orientation and counterfactual thinking in influencing people's safety behavior in the workplace.

On safety ontology: a cross-section analysis of incident investigations in a public healthcare system

BackgroundDue to new legislation in 2011 and 2013, the Swedish public healthcare system has undergone change as regards incident reporting and supervision. Focus has turned to learning from adverse events and sharing this learning with actors within the system. The aim of this study was to explore with what underlying safety ontology adverse events in the incident reporting system are investigated.MethodsA content analysis of 90 official and recently completed incident investigations from all six regional supervisory authority offices in Sweden was performed. Data was examined per nature of the investigation, number of targets for intervention, specific final comments in the investigation and the decision from the supervisory authority. A coding scheme was used to identify the organisational level of the targets for intervention.ResultsWith different investigation methods in use, this incident reporting system still seems to contribute to a reproduction of an organisational micro-level understanding of how risks emerge with a focus that operates in the event’s immediate spatial proximity. There are no signs of constructive dialogue on exposed matters between the main actors: the healthcare provider organisation and the supervisory authority. There are strong examples of mistranslation of social infrastructure from other safety-critical organisations. Actors and individuals at the blunt end of the healthcare system adapt to new legislation and organisational change by balancing rhetoric and practice during fulfilment of stated obligations.ConclusionsOur findings support that traditional linear causality construction and traditional norms remain intact despite new legislation and recent organisational change. Through efficient and adapted working procedures by the main actors, this model still brings societal closure of harm and thereby a way to focus on moving on forward.

Individual latent error detection: Simply stop, look and listen

Human error is a by-product of performance variability caused by system failures, for which undetected error generates a latent error condition that can lead to an undesired outcome. Individual Latent Error Detection (I-LED) has been observed in naval air engineers at work where system-induced errors not detected at the time they occurred were later recalled by the individual who suffered the error at some point post-task completion. Using system cues several I-LED interventions are tested in the current study with the aim of mitigating system-induced latent error conditions, for which a simple stop, look and listen approach is found to be the most effective. I-LED research offers a step-change in Safety II thinking by offering a level of safety within normal operations that has not previously been accounted for in organisational safety strategies and thus should be of benefit to safety critical organisations seeking to enhance their safety management system.

Latent error detection: A golden two hours for detection

Undetected error in safety critical contexts generates a latent condition that can contribute to a future safety failure. The detection of latent errors post-task completion is observed in naval air engineers using a diary to record work-related latent error detection (LED) events. A systems view is combined with multi-process theories to explore sociotechnical factors associated with LED. Perception of cues in different environments facilitates successful LED, for which the deliberate review of past tasks within two hours of the error occurring and whilst remaining in the same or similar sociotechnical environment to that which the error occurred appears most effective. Identified ergonomic interventions offer potential mitigation for latent errors; particularly in simple everyday habitual tasks. It is thought safety critical organisations should look to engineer further resilience through the application of LED techniques that engage with system cues across the entire sociotechnical environment, rather than relying on consistent human performance.

Work-family conflict and safety participation of high-speed railway drivers: Job satisfaction as a mediator

Despite the large body of work on the work-family interface, hardly any literature has addressed the work-family interface in safety-critical settings. This study draws from social exchange theory to examine the effect of employees’ strain-based work-to-family conflict on their supervisors’ rating of their safety participation through job satisfaction. The sample consisted of 494 drivers from a major railway company in China. The results of a structural equation model revealed that drivers’ strain-based work-to-family conflict negatively influences safety participation, and the relationship was partially mediated by job satisfaction. These findings highlight the importance of reducing employees’ work-to-family conflict in safety-critical organizations.

Public Service Motivation as Driver of Social Support to Apply for Safety-Critical Organizations? An Empirical Study in the Context of German Military Service

This study analyses the role public service motivation and safety needs play when close friends and family are asked for advice by a potential applicant for the military, a typical public safety organization. Our survey data (N = 150) were collected among visitors to a German county fair where the German military had a recruitment stand. The results of a hierarchical regression show that, besides the organizational and employer-related image, the norm-based and affective dimensions of the public service motivation affect support intentions. Anxiety and work–family incompatibility as risk-related factors have a negative effect on support intentions. The study results indicate that recruitment advertising designed to promote social support should foster positive image perceptions among families and friends of potential applicants and should encourage their norm-based public service motivations. However, future campaigns should keep in mind that affective reactions such as anxiety may distract close friends and family from supporting an application.

Enhancing the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Control Room Operators – A Roadmap-based Approach for Selecting Interaction Technologies for Defence and Safety-critical Organisations and Industries

Innovations in user interaction technologies play an increasingly important role in the marketing of products and services. This paper presents a systematic and easy-to-update method for the evaluation of innovations. It discusses criteria for selecting innovations for consumer products and an approach for the definition of selection criteria for defence and safety-critical organisations and industries. Those criteria are illustrated in the example of use cases from ARTEMIS project HoliDes addressing adaptation features in the workplaces of control room operators.

Conceptualising uncertainty in safety-critical projects: A practitioner perspective

In safety-critical organisations such as civil-nuclear and aerospace, managing uncertainty is of particular importance as the consequences of failure can be potentially catastrophic. The challenge facing project managers in these complex, socio-technical environments is how to better understand the sources of project uncertainty and how to navigate a path through them in pursuit of successful project outcomes.This exploratory study analyses the literature on the management of uncertainty in projects using Söderlund's (2011) seven schools of thought on project management. Additionally it draws on interviews with project management practitioners from several large-scale projects in civil-nuclear and aerospace companies in the United Kingdom to posit the “uncertainty kaleidoscope” as a means of understanding the sources of uncertainty in safety-critical projects and identifies four conceptual approaches that may be adopted by project managers to attenuate the impact of uncertainty on the delivery of successful project outcomes.

Principles of adaptive management in complex safety–critical organizations

This paper contributes to safety management by bringing in ideas from organizational complexity theories. Much of the studies and the literature on organizations as complex adaptive systems have focused on how to produce new innovations or how to increase financial effectiveness. We take the view that safety–critical organizations can be perceived as complex adaptive systems, and we discuss what this means for the management of safety. Our aim is to elaborate on the issue of what kinds of principles the management of safety should be based on in complex adaptive systems. In brief, we suggest that safety management should be adaptive, building on several different principles. Based on literature on complex adaptive systems we first identify the general features of complex adaptive systems, such as self-organizing and non-linearity, which need to be considered in management. Based on the features of complex adaptive systems, we define eight key principles of adaptive safety management and illustrate usefulness of the principles in making sense of the practice of safety management.

Positive organizational behavior and safety in the offshore oil industry: Exploring the determinants of positive safety climate

Much research has now documented the substantial influence of safety climate on a range of important outcomes in safety critical organizations, but there has been scant attention to the question of what factors might be responsible for positive or negative safety climate. The present paper draws from positive organizational behavior theory to test workplace and individual factors that may affect safety climate. Specifically, we explore the potential influence of authentic leadership style and psychological capital on safety climate and risk outcomes. Across two samples of offshore oil-workers and seafarers working on oil platform supply ships, structural equation modeling yielded results that support a model in which authentic leadership exerts a direct effect on safety climate, as well as an indirect effect via psychological capital. This study shows the importance of leadership qualities as well as psychological factors in shaping a positive work safety climate and lowering the risk of accidents.

Bullying and risk‐perception as health hazards on oil rigs

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the relative impact of workplace bullying and risk perception on the mental health among employees in safety critical organisations. The paper also aims to examine whether self‐esteem moderates the relationship between bullying and risk perception as stressors and mental health as an outcome variable.Design/methodology/approachEmploying a survey design, the variables were assessed in a cross‐sectional sample of 1,017 employees in the Norwegian offshore oil and gas industry.FindingsThe results show that workplace bullying is a stronger predictor of mental health problems than is risk perception. Self‐esteem had a buffering effect on the relationship between risk perception and mental health problems, whereas no protective effect of self‐esteem was found with regard to the association between bullying and mental health.Originality/valueThe findings have implications for how organisations may promote employee well‐being and health. It is suggested that organisations develop interventions that are aimed at reducing the occurrence of both.

The Role of Psychological Capital in Perception of Safety Climate Among Air Traffic Controllers

Previous research has shown that psychological capital (PsyCap) is associated with desired employee behavioral and performance outcomes. Extending previous research, we examine, in two studies, if the PsyCap of Norwegian air traffic controllers is related to their perceptions of safety climate. Based on bootstrapping procedures, results from Study 1 ( N = 77) and Study 2 ( N = 38) revealed that PsyCap was positively correlated with safety climate. In Study 1, PsyCap explained 31% of the variance in safety climate. Controlling for mediating effects of positive and negative emotions in Study 2, PsyCap explained 15.5% of the variance. These results provide first-time empirical evidence linking PsyCap to safety climate in safety critical organizations.